Summertime Sinfulness

Most kids regard summer camp as a brutal mixture of concentration camp, sweat shop and a pitiful alternative to Disney World. Nate Hanley's "Camp Kill" tosses in copious amounts of sex and slaughter. His style of horror harkens back to the nihilistic netherworlds of the exploitation age, when filmmakers sought to alarm and amuse their audiences by any means necessary. It was gross-out gone gonzo, sadistic porn, nasty and nauseating, and lots of (ultimately) harmless fun. For Hanley, there's nothing quite so enjoyable as taking an icon of childhood nostalgia and viewing it through a warped, blood-bleared kaleidoscope.

It's a shame serial killer survival lessons aren't commonly offered on the summer camp roster.

1) First off, that's an awesome shot in the trailer of that machete going right into Rachel Grubb's back. And looking at some of the behind-the-scenes photos on the campkill.com Web site, that certainly looks like some wicked work. How'd you pull it off? Same thing with that barbed wire shot in the trailer.

Nate: Hey, hey! Glad you liked it. I pulled all that stuff off with good old fashioned movie magic, no CGI garbage.

2) When folks hear a title like "Camp Kill," the first thing that flashes through their brain is "Friday the 13th". Is "Camp Kill" a slasher movie, homage, parody, gallows humor?

Nate: Really? Hey, that's great. I love that movie. The one from 1980, that is. I would have to say for sure "Camp Kill" is a slasher flick and also a movie that pays homage to all the great summer camp, horror flicks of the '80s. There were so many great ones that came out back then. I have a big, huge, soft spot for them. It was a great time for summer camp, slasher flicks.

3) So, I hear it's pretty much you and your dad shooting this thing? What's it like working with, pretty much, no crew, having to do elaborate death scenes, coping with marauding mosquitoes and shrieking cicadas and summertime swelter?

Nate: I have been making movies with no crew for years. I wouldn't have it any other way. I am very much a hands-on kind-of guy. If I had people helping me out, I would just be looking over their shoulder, anyway, making sure they are doing it the way I want it done. My dad was nice enough to help out when I needed help. I could not pull this one off by myself.

4) Care to share a bit of the story of "Camp Kill"? Where'd you get the idea? Are you a major horrormeister?

Nate: Heck, the best way to find out what "Camp Kill" is about is to see it when it comes out! I would love everyone to do just that! Oh, yeah. I love horror movies. Old ones. Ones from the '20s through the '80s. Some '90s Not so much the stuff they are making now.

5) Tell me a bit about location shooting. I noticed a Marine General Store and a banner for a Fireman's Ball in the pictures on the Behind the Scenes Web page. Looks very proverbial, very quaint.

Nate: Atmosphere in movies is a big deal for me. I am a big summer guy in general and summer is also a big part of summer camp, horror flicks. So, I like to get those elements in there. Yeah, I love the quaintness of small, country towns, so I wanted to get a bit of that in there, as well.

6) Tell me about your own memories of camp. Were they the typical chestnuts (archery, swim lessons, hazings) or more the gory brutality and mania of "Camp Kill"? Why do you think summer camp is associated with oversexed, boozy hedonism in horror?

Nate: You know, I was actually lucky enough to go to camp when I was 12. My whole class went for a weekend and it was a great time. I was just getting into horror movies at that time, so I was like, "Hell, yeah! We're going to Crystal lake." It was not really Crystal Lake, but you know what I mean. All of us guys stayed in a big cabin with bunk beds and the girls had their own cabin. We got to go canoeing, had camp fires, told ghost stories, the works. I'll never forget it. It was great. I think summer camp is associated with sex and stuff in horror because that is what camp is really like. You are out in the wilderness, closer to nature and your primate roots. It's hot out. You have girls wearing very little, basking in the sun. That environment just brings out the animal in us all.

7) So what was it like working with Derek Dirlam, Miss Salem and Miss Grubb? Derek seems to give a rather rambunctious performance and Miss Grubb seems to do an, um, awful lot of running.

Nate: Everyone was a joy to work with. I could not have asked for a better group of people. They all did so good. In many cases, they made the scenes better than they were on paper because of what they added themselves. It was great. Thanks so much guys!

8) How do you do horror on a shoestring? How do you make up for lack of budget? What does an indie horror flick bring to the table that you won't find in the Hollywoodized fare?

Nate: How I do horror with little money is only write scenes/deaths I already know I can pull off. I have learned over the years what I can and can't do with no/little money. I like to make killings interesting by how I shoot/cut/stage them, rather than just splashing blood everywhere. Having no budget actually makes you come up with creative ideas that you never would have thought of if you had lots of money. Having limits to what you can do makes you more creative, because you have to make the best out of what you have. Another thing I do is try to have something interesting going on every second to keep the viewer glued to the screen. You don't need any budget to do that. What you have the opportunity to do when you are independent is to go against the grain as far as what the mainstream movies are doing. You have a chance to do something very original and unique. Most movies out of Hollywood are far from that. Unfortunately, what ends up happening lots of times is the independent people end up trying to make movies that look and play like the movies in the mainstream to try to feel more "professional" or more like a part of what is going on in the current state of movies at that time. I don't care what the current trend is. I just make what I want to see, how I want to see it.

9) So what do you hope to do with "Camp Kill"? Is it going to be a festival fodder? Are you looking to score a distribution deal? Just an amusing, little project?

Nate: I'm not a big, film festival guy. I would enter it in festivals that don't have entry fees. Mostly I'm looking to get it picked up for direct-to-video distribution. We'll see what happens.

10) And lastly, why do you monkeys steal Derek's underwear at night*? Did you manage to catch any of this undie-thieving simians on camera?

Nate: I didn't get a chance to ask him. It's on my to do list, though. That's for sure! There were no monkey sightings.

*An allusion to Mr. Dirlam's famous t-shirt.